Monday, January 25, 2010

Playdough Cookies

Last night for Family Night, The kids and I did Play dough Cookies. Our Friends, The Sharps gave us 4 tubes of frozen dough for Christmas. Brooklyn and Easton loved it! The cookie dough even felt and smelled like play dough. I was a little nervous to eat it. The cookies were pretty good. We had a good time...Family Fun!!!!



Crazy Easton!

My crazy Easton! I needed to do a test photo for a shoot and Easton was happy to help. He was a little crazy face...it was bedtime hence the PJ's. These photos are Easton to the "T" he is our funny boy!!!!









Sunday, January 17, 2010

Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friend, Natalie posted this awesome cookie recipe on her blog. I had to try it and I must say I will never use another Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe again. These are sooo good and soft and chewy. I added M&M's...they turned out awesome! I made them for my YW's lesson today. And Eric took some to his meetings. I have probably eaten 4-5 today myself...oops! I am making Eric take the rest to work tomorrow...if I don't I know what will happen to them tomorrow...and I just don't need a few extra pounds in my beehind! I doubled the recipe and it made 3 1/2 pan fulls.


Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 C plus 2 Tb flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 Tb butter, melted and cooled until just warm

1 C packed brown sugar

1/2 C white sugar

1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

1-1 1/2 C chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Adjust racks to upper and lower middle positions.

1. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside.

2. Mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and beat on low until just combined.

Stir in chips to taste.

(My Note: I just made a ball and set it on the cookie sheet...I wasn't sure what a "scant" was and this twisting business what about! Don't push them down!)

3. Roll a scant 1/4 C of dough into ball.

Pull the ball into 2 parts and twist so the jagged parts are up, smoosh back together.

Place on cookie sheets.

4. Bake 15-18 minutes, switching racks 1/2 way through. This way you can do two pans at a time. Don't over bake...they will be barely brown on the edges...but they will finish baking while cooling.

Cool the cookies on the pan.

(makes about 12-14 cookies)

from The New Best Recipe cookbook
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A new lesson learned!


Eric's friend/coworker asked me to make him this logo out of vinyl for his sons room. Oh boy...what did I get myself into? First it took a while a create the file on Sure-Cuts-Alot (awesome program for Cricut users). Once that was done...cutting was the easiest part of all thanks to the Cricut!
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Then the fun part began...layering the vinyl on top of each other....my friend had warned me to be careful because vinyl on vinyl sticks very fast and strong...once down...it will not come off. So one black ring was lost immediately. So I cut another one...this time I was extra careful and put it down just right...then the big problem occurred...BUBBLES! I didn't even think about bubbles...I took the credit card and smoothed it out but still had ALOT of bubbles and it looked so bad...so again I had to cut out more vinyl. This time I googled..."Layering Vinyl without bubbles." Thanks to some awesome lady who had the same problem... I found my answer...Water! Who would have thought of that!
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So if you ever have to layer vinyl...this is how you do it. Spray the bottom layer with water and then immediately lay down the piece of vinyl...then quickly use your squeegee or credit card to smooth out the bubbles and water. Pull off the transfer tape and wipe dry. Make sure you rub it down really well...I had a few drops still come out after I wiped it dry. The technique WORKED GREAT! It was nice and smooth. I made a little mistake later and didn't use the water for one of the letters...thinking it was a little piece and I could do it without bubbles...well I should have used water...I have a few bubbles. So if you ever layer any vinyl...use WATER on all of it!
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So after wasting alot of vinyl and time...the project is done! LESSON LEARNED!

Why?????????????

WHY DOES MY SON DO THIS???????????

COME ON is it really that hard to get the toothpaste out???

And this happens over and over...toothpaste is a pain to clean up!
Kids will be kids!

My New Obsession!

Remember this...
I bought it for only $5 on the Wii Channel...and I love playing it! I can't get past level 8.2 (with warps of course). I use to play this ALL the time as a child and it has brought back so many memories...good times!
My poor kids always ask when they can have a turn...when I get sucked in... I am done! JK...Easton has plenty of time on the Wii! Eric has even told him if he sleep during sacrameeting..he can play the Wii when he gets home. The things Daddy's do...well Easton has slept for the last two Sundays! Today he woke up and the lights were out in the chapel and he was scared and walked out to find someone and told them that his parents left him. I felt so bad..he thought we went home and forgot about him...never!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Eric's way to say Thanks!


Eric's mom sent some clothes for Christmas!
This is Eric's way of saying Thanks!!!!
His Mom loved it...She emailed back this...
"Eric you are tooooo much.
Funny Kid!
Thanks for the photo shoot.
Love you Mom"